


we will arrive on the water

by holsmi



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Don't Worry About It, Family, Fluff, Gen, Minor Violence, Post-Game, Prosthetics, Reunions, a few swears, mentions of amputations, some OCs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:01:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26169865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holsmi/pseuds/holsmi
Summary: Rost survived.
Relationships: Aloy & Rost (Horizon: Zero Dawn)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 82





	we will arrive on the water

Aloy couldn’t think of a time when she had felt such pain. After waking, she looked around and she didn’t know where she was—the ceiling above her and the bed below her weren’t hers. She struggled into a sitting position, feeling like every inch of her was bruised, and clutched her abdomen like that would help keep the whole of her together.

Experimentally, she rolled her shoulders and stretched her neck to one side. She gasped as the skin around the cut on her neck pulled and her hand flew to it.

 _Turn your face to the sun, girl._ Images flashed in her mind’s eye: Vala and Bast being felled by strange and powerful weapons by the attackers; Rost coming to her rescue; him telling her to survive and pushing her off the side of the cliff; watching him jump behind her and being consumed by the blast.

Aloy put her head in her hands and tears welled unbidden in her eyes. Reflexively, she touched the side of her face and her hand jerked when she felt bare skin where her focus should be.

Her mind switched gears. She can’t fall apart while there’s a problem to solve, something to overcome. Find her focus, find her gear, figure out where she was, and deal with the tangle of painful emotions when she had the time.

She swung her feet off the bed and she dug her toes into a soft fur rug. She was in a warm cave, softly lit by candles of varying heights, and she was surprised by the comfort within it. She’d slept in caves before, on long hunts with Rost or when weather prevented their return home. She’d use Rost’s upper arm as a pillow and he’d lecture her on not relying on others or getting used to unnecessary comfort. Still, he wouldn’t make her move and she’d stay there until she fell asleep.

“No,” she thought aloud, rubbing her face. She pushed herself to standing, thighs straining under the effort, and she wobbled on her feet. She took a step and her leg nearly gave out. She caught herself and muttered, “Push through it.”

The pain was more intense than any she’d felt before; not any bash from a Watcher or kick from a Strider caused pain like this, but pushing through pain was a practiced skill and she knew she could do it.

The little room led to a candlelit hallway, metal support beams lining the walls. It wasn’t just a cave, these were sets of tunnels, she realized as she made it to an intersection of halls.

“It looks like the ruins of the metal world, like the one from when I was a kid,” she said, turning slowly in a circle. She found her clothes and her focus, quickly redressing. Activating the focus, she realized that she hadn’t taken a full breath until the interface flickered to life around her.

She pulled up her map and said, “I’m in All-Mother Mountain? That can’t be.” She quickly adjusted the perspective, confirming it. “Ha, and before they wouldn’t even let me through the gates.” She scanned the room and noted a signal coming from nearby. “The broken focus?” she wondered.

Back in her gear, her footsteps were firmer as she made her way down another hallway. Quickly, she found her weapons and the broken focus. In its files, she discovered the plan to attack the Proving, and a woman who looked so much like her that bittersweet hope bobbed in her throat.

There she also found Teersa and learned that the mountain was supposed to be her mother, not this woman, and that corruption would separate her from her answers.

Outside of All-Mother, Lansra stalked away from her, Jezza, and Teersa, muttering about the destruction of them all, the risk Aloy posed to the Nora. Watching her leave, Aloy wondered how someone could look at a baby and see a curse, see a demon to be spurned. _Hmpf_ , probably the same people who looked at a door and saw a goddess.

She was being unfair, she sighed internally and thought of Teersa and Rost, devout in their faith but never once considering her a curse.

After Jezza and Teersa blessed her, appointing her a Seeker ( _Blessed_ , Aloy scoffed, _I don’t feel very blessed_ ), Aloy asked Teersa, “What happened to Rost?”

“We didn’t find much,” Teersa said with a delicate tone. “What was found, we buried at the place where he raised you, with flowers to mark the grave.”

“Thank you,” Aloy said.

She made her way down the mountain and scanned the plants popping out of the snow for anything useful. She tucked a few handfuls of salvebrush into her medicine pouch along the way.

\------

After destroying the Corrupter, Aloy rode a Strider to the base of the cliff where she grew up. She climbed down from the Strider’s back and sent it away, not wanting to test just yet how long this newfound control over machines would last at this point.

The Strider galloped off and Aloy made her way up the marked path. She remembered when Rost first made this path for her, wrapping the handholds in bright yellow rope to help her see. He said it was just like how the Braves of the tribe marked their trails and it would be good practice to start looking out for them.

Her vision blurred with unshed tears as she pushed herself to the top of the path over the edge of the cliff, remembering the look on Rost’s face when she did this climb by herself for the first time. She was still small, barely past her eighth birthday, and he’d picked her up and swung her around while she laughed.

Aloy walked up the path and found the pile of rocks marking Rost’s grave, flowers planted around them just like Teersa said. Some Braves even found the point of his spear and used it to decorate the grave. She thought he would’ve liked that.

She went to her knees in front of the grave. “Rost,” she said, swallowing thickly. “I don’t know how to… I don’t know what—"

She took a deep breath and shook her head. “I remember your lesson, Rost.” Aloy’s hand came around the pendent he gave her, her fingers rubbing at the little holes in it. “That the tribe will need me more than I need them. That’s definitely true,” she laughed.

“I’m going to find out who did this. It’s going to take me far away and the High Matriarchs made me a Seeker so I could go, but I would’ve gone anyways. This is much bigger than me, and I can’t stand aside and let everyone else figure it out while people suffer.

“They were after me, and I think it was because of my mother,” she said, hopeful. “The attackers had a picture of a woman who looked just like me, but older and with short hair.”

Aloy reached out and touched one of the rocks, and it was a cold comfort. “I promise you, I won’t stop until I succeed.” She stood back up and took one last long look at the place he raised her. She turned back to the grave and said, “I hope I make you proud.”

\------

Canila had been exiled young, not long after her Proving. Youthful and mostly irreverent, she’d taken to her newfound freedom with gusto, exploring the Nora lands from top to bottom.

It was this behavior that’d gotten her in trouble. She’d been getting away with her deviancy just fine, artfully hiding her finds in a cache in the wilds, far away from her parents and the watchful eyes of the Matriarchs. This worked out well until Gerst ratted her out, the _bastard._ He’d never forgiven her for beating him at their own Proving.

She snickered as she remembered his face as she placed her trophy mere seconds before he did. Neither had won overall, but she beat him, and _that_ was what counted. With a sigh, she again landed at the conclusion that Gerst had the last laugh. He was probably yucking it up with the tribe while she’s been cast out for decades. Well, if he was still alive.

Canila shook her head and shuffled the handwritten notes on her makeshift desk. What happened to those poor kids at the Proving a couple weeks past was dredging up old memories that were better off staying buried.

“Ma’am?” Her attention was pulled by Tannel, another outcast, younger than her but not by much. He stuck his head around a curtain that separated the little cubby from the rest of the ruins they were calling home since the attack. “He’s stirring. Kallen thinks he’s going to wake up this time.”

She stood, her stool scraping against the floor in her haste to follow Tannel out. They’d found a man in the snow outside the blast radius of the attack not long after her little group came together. Rumors said the attackers were outsiders, brandishing strange weapons and wearing strange clothes, not something she would say about their guest.

She entered the alcove where he slept. He was muttering fitfully, nonsense words, and she sat beside his bed to wait. Kallen was right, and it didn’t take long for the man to wake. His eyes flew open and he shuddered a breath, looking around frantically.

He tried to sit up and she placed her hands on his shoulders, pushing him down gently. “Hey, you’re okay, you’re safe here. My name is Canila, and we’re just outside the embrace. We found you in the snow and you had the look of an outcast, too, so we took you with us.”

The intended implication was not lost on the man and he looked at her, a silent scold like he was her father. He reminded her of her father, despite him not being much older than her.

She didn’t recognize him, couldn’t place him in her memory of the tribe, but that didn’t mean very much.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she rebuked. “After what happened at the Proving, and with the derangement of the machines, outcasts can’t afford to be loners anymore.”

At her mention of the Proving, his eyes widened and he tried to sit up, urgency in his movements.

“Whoa, no way. You have to stay in bed. You’re really hurt, and you’ve been out for a couple weeks. It was touch and go for a while, there.”

He shifted back, but his eyes flicked past her. A firm believer in tribal law, this one.

“Listen or don’t, that’s between you and the All-Mother, but I’m going to talk about your injuries for whoever wants to hear it.”

He gave little reaction while she spoke, but he also didn’t plug his ears like a child, so it would be impossible that he didn’t hear her. He had broken several bones, some burns, and a stab wound in his stomach (a miracle from on high that he survived if she’d ever seen one). It was the leg, missing from just below the knee, that got his attention.

He tried to pull back the blanket, but didn’t have the strength. They’d been keeping him comfortable with dreamwillow while he recovered, especially when his condition was touch-and-go, and dreamwillow takes it out of a person. She helped him pull it all the way until his left leg was visible, or at least what was left of it. He was healing well, and she had high hopes for his recovery.

Canila replaced the blanket and said, “Now, we have options for that one. I’ve gotten pretty good at making replacement limbs out of metal.” At his look, she added, “Nothing like you’re thinking. Let me show you.”

She went to the doorway and called for Rina, a younger outcast in their group. Rina quickly came through the door; their encampment was not very large.

“Rina, can you show our new friend your hand?”

Rina was a quiet girl and the only one of their group she’d met before the attack. No one knew how she’d lost her hand, but she adapted extremely well to the rudimentary replacement Canila had made for her years ago. Canila was glad to have found her again, safe, after the attack.

Rina waved at the man, the metal glinting in the late afternoon sunlight. “Could you please get that pouch of herbs for me?” Canila asked, pointing.

Nodding, she walked over to a small table in the room. With practiced ease, she unlatched the hooks for her prosthetic and encircled them around the largest part of the pouch. She tightened the hooks until they clicked into place. Rina picked up the pouch and brought it over to Canila, their guest watching intently, eyebrows furrowed.

“Did you need anything else? I was helping Sannea with dinner.”

Canila smiled. “No, and thank you for your time.” Rina left the room and Canila repeated herself, “You have options, ones no more forbidden than your bow or your spear, if you want them.”

Still, he stayed silent.

“If you will not speak to me, at least speak to the All-Mother so I know that you can,” she sighed.

He took a deep breath and spoke, his voice rough with disuse, “All-Mother, I thank you for the kindness of strangers, for I know it is through them you work.”

“Alright.” She tapped the side of the bed a couple times while she stood. “Good to know you’re not too addled by your injuries. I’ll pass around the word that you’re awake, and a follower of the law. There’s six of us here: me, you’ve met Rina, Tannel, Sannea, Kallen, and Aila. You’ll meet them all in time. Rest well.”

She made a move for the doorway, but stopped when she spoke again, “All-Mother, I pray your kindnesses were extended to any other souls that may have survived the attack, as I did under your grace.”

Canila sighed, resting her back against the archway. “We didn’t find anyone else with you, if that’s what you’re asking, but we tried to stay out of the way of the tribe. As for survivors, rumors we’ve heard say that there were some, but not a lot. I’m sorry if you had someone on that mountain.”

He nodded, and she was surprised he gave her that much of a response, blasphemy eased by the turmoil warring on his face, in the tension in his body.

“Rest well. Someone will come to check on you soon,” Canila said and left the man to his grief.

\------

Nil had pointed Aloy to an encampment of bandits, cheekily stationed just outside the Embrace—he rationalized that she deserved to participate because of that, and she appreciated the thought, kind of.

He’d asked to tag along, eyes glinting in a way that continued to make her uneasy. She’d killed, many times, but she’d never felt that kind of pleasure from the act. She’d quit this work and retire somewhere quiet if she ever did, she thought.

She had, ah, _politely_ declined his offer.

She approached the camp at dawn, taking out a few sentries and stalking the bandits from above. Activating her focus, she couldn’t see any prisoners, but they might have been outside of her range. She did take note of the most common paths of the guards, the location of the alarm, and the location of their leader (around a campfire, intoxicated—easy prey).

Her fingers absentmindedly played with the dual pendants hanging from her neck: the smooth rock Rost had given her before the Proving and the little globe she found with Elisabet’s body as she chose her entryway and dropped down.

She snuck through some tall grass, stalks of red through masked her bright hair in the early morning light. Moving quietly, Aloy crawled out of sight until she was right behind the lone guard watching the alarm. Striking him quickly, she hid his body in the grass behind her before sabotaging the alarm.

The leader wandered away from the campfire to relieve himself in some bushes a few yards away from her. She notched an arrow, and another, and allowed him the dignity to finish before drawing back and releasing the arrows. They hit home and he fell with a strangled cry.

Two bandits heard him and stalked over to investigate, passing by her hiding place in the brush. Aloy grabbed the one walking behind the other, silently taking her out, and hiding her body in the tall grass.

Her partner crouched by the leader’s body and said, “Looks like we have company, Ena.” He turned and stood Ena missing. He stood up abruptly and ran to the alarm. Finding it destroyed, his partner gone, and the leader taken out, the bandit realized the magnitude of the threat Aloy posed. He said, “Fuck this,” and ran through the camp, shouting for his fellows to flee.

She saw ten more flee out of the camp and into the woods. It would have been a smart bet on their part, if she wasn’t positive that Nil remained somewhere out there in those trees.

Aloy stood and stowed her spear on her back. She activated her focus and scanned the encampment again; she was closer and could see three groups of prisoners, stashed away. She quickly found and released the first five prisoners, all Nora outcasts that had banded together in the aftermath of the Proving and the accelerated derangement. The glint of light off metal caught her eye briefly as a young woman with a metal hand prosthesis passed her.

One of them, an older dark-skinned woman with large streaks of gray in her hair, was the clear leader of the group. The others looked to her for direction, which she gave with ease.

She shook Aloy’s hand, looking her up and down, and said, “Thank you, Seeker, for helping a group of outcasts. I’m Canila.”

“Aloy. I was raised as an outcast in the Embrace. Never really agreed with the practice of shunning outcasts.” Canila chuckled. “You have two more people we need to get to. They’re that way,” Aloy said, pointing.

“Oh, I know. Aila was mildly injured in the attack so they kept her separate, but the Grouch is with her and he has a deft hand for healing, so I’m not too worried.”

“The Grouch?”

“Ha, yes. It’s not his name, but it suits him. The man follows tribal law to the letter and only speaks if it’s to the All-Mother. He’d be damned intolerable if he wasn’t so useful to have around.”

“Why does he stay? Outcasts like that usually live alone,” Aloy asked, thinking of Odd Grata. She led Canila towards the last two of the group.

“He lost a leg in the attack on the Proving, but he’s working to become accustomed to a replacement I rigged up. He’s made incredible improvements, but not enough to make it out there on his own,” Canila explained.

“Replacement? Like that girl’s hand?”

“Yeah, Rina lost her hand some years back.”

“It was impressive,” Aloy complimented.

“Thank you. You’ve got some impressive gear yourself,” Canila remarked with a raised eyebrow, poking at the shieldweaver exoskeleton and marveled as it shimmered. “ _Very_ impressive.”

Aloy shrugged. She didn’t make it. “It’s one of a kind. And ancient.”

Canila hummed. “Would you mind if I—”

“Canila?” a woman’s voice called out, a few yards from them, behind a curtain. “Is that you?”

Canila walked towards the voice, in a little room behind a curtain. She said, “Aila, your arm looks good. Good stitching, again, Grouch.”

“May the All-Mother be praised for her continued blessing upon us, leading us through this long night,” a man said and Aloy _froze_.

She knew that voice. It was one of the very few she heard in the first nearly twenty years of her life.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say,” Canila laughed. This exchange was clearly one they’d had before, but that wasn’t possible. Rost was dead, he died in the attack on the Proving, and what was left of him was buried where he raised her in the Embrace.

She pushed back the curtain with a shaking hand and there he was, sitting on a bench with his back against a wall, mismatched legs sticking out in front of him and a crutch within arm’s reach. She barely noticed Aila sitting on a ledge, clutching a bandage on her arm and Canila crouched in front of her.

“Rost?” she asked, her voice small.

Rost’s eyes flicked to her face and his jaw dropped. He stood and stumbled, putting too much weight on his prosthetic. She rushed to him, holding him up by the torso. One arm came around her shoulders and his free hand rested against her cheek.

“I wasn’t sure if you survived,” he said.

“I didn’t think you had. There’s even a grave for you.”

Rost eased himself back down on to the bench, and Aloy saw Canila and Aila discreetly leaving the little room out of her periphery. “You’re a Seeker?” Rost asked, noting the sigil on her hip.

She smiled wide and a few tears fell when she realized that Rost spoke to her before he knew she was a Seeker. He spent months talking to no one but the All-Mother, but he spoke to her, broke the law for her.

Aloy sat down next to him. “Yeah, to find the people that attacked the Proving, and stop them. Protect the Nora by stopping the Derangement. Be a part of something bigger than myself, just like you said.”

“That’s a big task,” Rost commented.

“Yeah,” she nodded. “I did it, though. Travelled to the other side of the Sundom and beyond to do it. I’ve seen things I can’t even begin to explain.”

“Did you see Meridian?” he asked.

“Yes! Did you get to ride the elevator when you went?” She paused and then said apologetically, “Teersa told me how you were cast out. I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be. I’m glad you know. And I didn’t, but I watched others on it and I would take a Brave trail or even a Tallneck any day.” They both laughed for a moment. “What about your mother? What did you learn?”

She breathed out a long sigh. “That’s a question. It’s all so intermingled, I don’t know where to start.”

“The beginning is usually a good place.”

Rost sat quietly while she told him an abbreviated version of everything, asking clarifying questions here and there, but mostly just took it all in.

At one point he asked, “This woman, this Elisabet Sobeck, was she your mother?”

“Sort of,” she said and tried to think of a way to explain it without broaching the topic of _cloning_. “In the way that seeds can travel long distances before landing and growing a new plant, I guess. She died a thousand years ago.”

“What? How is that possible?”

“I’ll get there, I promise,” she said. She held out the little globe that hung around her neck next to the necklace he gave her for Rost to see. “This was hers. After it was all over, I went to where she grew up, a place far west called _Nevada_ , and found it with her body.”

His eyes widened. “You found her body?”

“Yes, but that’s near the end of the story.”

She watched him carefully for the rest of the story, afraid of his reaction—she plunged headfirst into the world of the Old Ones, of Elisabet Sobeck and GAIA and Zero Dawn, with little to no care for how the Nora would react, until now. The opinion of those of the tribe? Meaningless to her, especially as she spent more and more time in Meridian with Talanah and Erend or holed up at the top of the Bitter Climb.

Rost was different, and she held his opinion in high regard. But, he never looked at her with judgement; curiosity and shock, yes, but never judgement.

They spoke for hours, and they only realized the passage of time when Canila came to bring them something to eat for a midday meal before stepping back out, as quiet as she came.

When Aloy finished, Rost said, “You’ve done so much, seen so much. I’m—I’m so proud.”

Warmth spread through her and she said, “There was a point I wasn’t sure if you’d believe me, to be honest. Or if you’d be angry with me for it.”

“How can I be? You’ve done better than I could have hoped for, Aloy. And, it’s a hard story to believe, but you’ve never been one to lie, girl. I have no reason to doubt you.” He paused and shook his head. “Still, I’m sorry that your questions didn’t lead to a more satisfying answer; you worked so hard for so long.”

“It’s okay, really. You raised me well, and I wouldn’t change a thing. Knowing about GAIA and Elisabet sooner wouldn’t have made a difference.” She hesitated for a second before saying, “I could show you, where I was born, if you’re willing.”

He looked skeptical and said, “No matter what sway you have now, I’m still an outcast. I wouldn’t be allowed in Mother’s Watch, let alone within the sacred mountain, and I won’t ask for an exception, either. That’s the law, and I knew what I was agreeing to.”

Aloy got up and paced the small room. “It’s a bad law! It keeps good people from the tribe, people who can help! And we need good people right now. Your last lesson, be a part of something bigger. You could be again!”

“Aloy.”

“No, it’s not fair. You did an honorable thing for the tribe, and they cast you out.”

“Stop, girl,” he said, climbing to his feet, aided by the crutch. “I don’t regret it. Not my revenge, and not being cast out. And besides, If I hadn’t been, I might not have been able to raise you, and I’ll never regret you.”

She hugged him and he squeezed her with her free arm. This couldn’t be the end of it, letting him live out his life in the wilds. _Wait_ —

“My boon!” she gasped.

“Boon? From your Proving?”

“Yes. I won, but I never collected my boon. Technically. You know I always planned to use it to find out about my mother, but after I woke up from the attack, Teersa told me everything she knew without me asking. I could use my boon to bring you back to the tribe.”

“Aloy, that’s unprecedented. I can’t let you—”

“What else would I use it for? And you’d be doing me a favor, keeping an eye on the tribe when I can’t.” And it would give a reason to return to the Nora, outside of obligation. She had friends in the tribe, like Teb and Varl, but even they treated her differently and called her _Anointed_ now.

He sighed and she celebrated a little internally. She could read on his face that she won, and won _easily_ at that. It was nice to be around someone she knew this well, could read this easily. Erend was the only other person that she had close to this familiarity. Talanah came close after him, but she liked to throw Aloy off too much for her to always be able to know what Talanah was thinking.

“I’m headed to Mother’s Watch, anyways. I was coming from the Sundom to help moderate a trade delegation between the tribe and the Carja, reestablishing trade routes now that the battle is over. You might as well come with me.”

“Yes, yes, you’ve made your point, girl. Don’t be surprised if it doesn’t work, though.”

“Oh, it’ll work. Didn’t I tell you about how Lansa falls to her knees whenever she sees me now?”

“You did. And not to encourage this sacrilege, I wouldn’t mind hearing the story again. Lansra was a terror, even when I was young.”

\------

They stayed with Canila and her group that night, with plans to head to Mother’s Watch in the morning. Canila insisted, saying she wanted to do one last fine tune on Rost’s leg.

It was completely devoid of all tech, as Aloy knew Rost wouldn’t have tolerated anything otherwise, with a simple joint at the ankle. It consisted of a padded circle around what was left of his calf, coming around like a funnel to the ankle joint. There was additional support at the stump, but it looked like Canila worked to make sure that the majority of the pressure would be on the remaining leg and not on the stump.

Aloy slept that night propped up against a log around the fire at the center of camp, dozing off in the middle of a story, feeling safe enough to do so. She woke at the breaking of first light the next morning in the same place, but with a worn blanket tucked around her shoulders. Most everyone else was asleep still, and Rost leaned over the fire while he cooked breakfast.

She felt like a child again, but only in the best ways.

Canila met them at the gate to the camp when it was time for them to leave. She shook Aloy’s hand again and punched Rost’s upper arm.

“Thank you, Seeker. And you, too, Grouch.” Rost nodded with a smile, soft, but stayed silent.

“Thank you, too,” Aloy said. “Are you planning on staying here? No one would mind if you moved within the Embrace.”

“Nah.” She waved her off. “None of us have much desire to be around that many people. No, we’re quite content here, just our little troupe.” To Rost, she said, “We’ll be around. Come back if you need help with that leg, got it?”

“Got it,” Aloy answered for him.

“May the All-Mother bless those who grace others with kindness,” Rost said.

“Yeah, yeah, okay.” Canila rolled her eyes. “Back at you. You planning on walking to Mother’s Watch?”

Aloy shook her head with a grin. “Wait here.”

Striders grazed nearby and she quickly took out the Watchers with a couple of well-aimed arrows. She overrode one Strider, and then another, and led both back to the camp.

Their wiring glowed blue when she approached and Canila’s eyes sparkled. “Full of surprises, you are,” she said with a laugh. “Now get out of here.”

When Aloy and Rost mounted their Striders (Rost clumsier than her, she noted with a grin), the rest of Canila’s camp joined her to wave them off.

They rode away in any easy trot and after a few minutes, Rost began to laugh quietly.

“When you were young, I spent a lot of time thinking about what you would do after you joined the tribe, and controlling machines and defeating ancient demons was not something I can say I expected.”

Self-conscious, she asked, “Is that okay?”

“Of course, girl. I'm just surprised, is all. Maybe I should’ve expected it, with how easily you were able to adapt to that device,” he said, gesturing vaguely at his temple.

Aloy smiled to herself, proud, and pushed the Strider into a gallop.

\------

It didn’t take them long to reach Mother’s Watch, a much shorter time than if they’d walked. They dismounted at the bottom of the hill that led up to the gate and Aloy directed the Striders to go be with a nearby herd.

Rost looked up the hill and the bustle of people could be heard from where they stood. Leaning heavily on his crutch, he said, “I swore I’d never return here.” She could hear the longing plain in his voice, etched on his face. She was reminded of when he told her that she’d learn to enjoy the community of Mother’s Heart, as he once had.

“You don’t have to,” she started. “If I’ve pushed too much—” He put up a hand to stop her.

“Follow,” he said, starting them up the path. Two Braves guarded the gate and they bowed to her, but looked warily at Rost.

“Welcome back, Anointed One,” one said.

Anticipating her intentions, the other added, “We cannot allow the outcast past the gates, Anointed One.”

“I know,” Aloy said. “Can you call the High Matriarchs for me, then? We’ll wait here.”

One ran off behind the gate and Rost muttered into her ear, “You command the High Matriarchs so easily?”

Before she could respond, the gate opened briefly to Teersa alone. “Aloy, you’ve returned. And, _oh_ , All-Mother be praised,” she said, laying eyes on Rost, hands on her chest. “How can this be?”

“He survived the attack. He spent the last few months regaining his strength just outside the Embrace.”

Jezza and Lansra joined Teersa at the gate then and with the doors fully opened, Aloy could see those behind them pretending very hard to look busy. She looked up to see the guards stationed above doing the same. Nosey.

Jezza greeted Aloy with a smile and a nod, while Lansra dropped to her knees in front of her.

“Lansra, no, please We talked about this,” Aloy said, pulling Lansra back to her feet. Stepping back to Rost, Aloy said with a tone of uncomfortable formality, “High Matriarchs, I’d like to claim my boon for winning the Proving.”

“Your boon?” Teersa asked. “But you’ve already…?”

“No, I didn’t. I wanted to use it to learn more about my mother, but you offered that information without me asking. I’m asking for something else.”

Teersa, compassionate and quick witted, glanced between Aloy and Rost and put her hands over her mouth to hide a delighted smile.

Jezza said, “You can ask, although I can’t imagine there’s much we’d deny the chosen of the All-Mother, with or without a boon.”

“I want Rost to be reinstated as a member of the tribe, and be an outcast no more.”

“Unthinkable!” Lansra snarled, “There has never been—” A sharp look from Aloy stopped Lansra’s speech, but her glare only diminished slightly.

“That is no simple task,” Jezza said, always the moderate.

“And why shouldn’t it be?” Teersa proposed. “The All-Mother created Aloy for our salvation, for us to raise, and we abandoned that sacred task. Rost, an outcast who had done much for our tribe, took up that holy work in our stead. I cannot think of anything more proper.”

Aloy never loved being spoken about like that, but she had to admit that it was convincing.

“Well said, sister,” Jezza said.

Lansra, shamed, agreed.

Aloy turned to Rost and said, “Welcome home!”

\------

“People are just allowed in the Sacred Mountain, now?” Rost asked as they made their way into its mouth. Other Nora moved around them, eyes looking at Rost with confusion. They would have said something, stopped them, any other time, but Aloy’s presence gave him legitimacy. She hoped that they’d respect him on his own merits, sooner rather than later.

“Since the attacks, this was the only stronghold left,” Aloy said. “A lot of people are staying here until Mother’s Heart is fully rebuilt.”

“How much is left to do?” he asked, already planning. Aloy had seen him shrewd and strategic many times in the past, but the instant desire to turn that instinct towards the betterment of the tribe hinted at Brave he’d once been.

“I’m not sure, I spent much of the last few weeks at GAIA prime, after I came back from Nevada. I do know that they need some materials only found in the Sundom, and that’ll be discussed when the delegation arrives.”

“And when will that be?”

“Should be by tomorrow afternoon.” She directed him around a corner. “Come on, this way.” They entered the large antechamber that contained the door to ELEUTHIA-9 and murmurs from others in the room announced their arrival.

Aloy stepped up onto the platform. The scanner activated and the computerized voice said, “Hold for identiscan.”

She looked back at Rost; he’d taken a step back in shock.

It finished scanning and said, “Genetic identity confirmed. Entry authorized. Greetings, Doctor Sobeck. You are cleared to proceed.”

Aloy walked towards the door, gesturing for Rost to follow. Awestruck, he shook his head. “Aloy, I cannot. This was not meant for me.”

She looked down the hallway that led into the cradle facility and then back at him. “Please?” she asked.

The look on her face won him over and he sighed. “Alright, girl.” He joined her on the other side of the door and jumped only a little when the doors shuttered to a close.

“Thank you,” she said. “I know I told you what I learned here, but I wanted you to see it for yourself. So you’d understand.”

He nodded and patted her shoulder comfortingly and walked forward. Further in, they saw the paintings on the wall and Rost’s fingers drifted over them, tracing the angry lines. “What is this?”

“Do you remember what I said about the APOLLO program?” she asked.

“It was destroyed, right before the other Alphas were murdered, yes?” She was pleased he remembered, but it was so odd to hear him speak in her new language.

“Yes. When the planet was safe for people again, facilities like this were supposed to give birth to them and here,” she stopped, and opened the door to the school pods, “was where they were supposed to learn about the world. With nothing to learn, the doors never opened, and they never understood why.”

She went to one of the pods and pulled out a focus. Aloy handed it to Rost—he’d need it for what was next—and his hand hovered over it, never touching it.

“It won’t bite,” she laughed. He hesitated again and she reached up to put it on his temple. She activated both of theirs and a hologram popped up.

Rost gasped and took a step back as a dark-skinned woman in a headwrap spoke, “Hello, children! My name is Samina. Welcome to your first day of school.” Her image froze before looping, the rest of the information lost forever. She deactivated their focuses.

“Who what that?”

“Her name was Samina Ebadji. She was one of the Alphas and worked with Elisabet on the project. She spent the last days of her life to preserve their knowledge for us.”

“And it’s all lost,” he said, more mournful than she’d expect. “I wonder how much of our legends were correct.”

She thought about it for a second. “Most of them, actually. The Metal Devil was created by man, as were most of the machines. It was an error inside that caused them to go berserk and consume the world. But, the technology is only as dangerous as any tool, the line between build and destroy is in how you use it.”

“How was the Metal Devil destroyed, in truth?”

She shrugged. “Like with the rest of the machines, without fuel, it died out. GAIA had to wait until they were all dead before she could rebuild, or else they would have just kept destroying.”

He nodded, satisfied for the moment, and Aloy continued through the school room into the room with the large display. She activated their focuses and started the playback.

GAIA appeared in her ethereal wonder and played the message Aloy had watched over and over. Rost listened in disbelief as GAIA explained the loss of control over her subfunctions and HADES’s rebellion. He circled the projection and shuddered a breath when GAIA stopped with, “In you, Elisabet, all things are possible.”

“That was the All-Mother,” he whispered, reverent.

“No, that was GAIA,” Aloy countered.

“Who is the All-Mother, if not the one who saved us from the Metal Devil and from the destruction of the metal world. Who created our world for us and brought us into it? You said it yourself.”

Aloy didn’t have an argument against that, and if it helped him understand and accept this culture-shock she forced him into, she’d take it and be grateful.

“Okay,” she said.

He continued to stare at the frozen visage of GAIA. “It’s a shame that she was forced to destroy herself; a true act of sacrifice.”

“Actually,” she said. “I’m close to finishing rebuilding her.” At his stunned look, she continued, “There are only a few more parts that I needed, and they should be finished at one of the cauldrons by the time this trade meeting is complete. They’ll take a while to install, but it shouldn’t be too much longer now.”

“Will we be able to talk to her?” he asked quietly.

She hadn’t thought of that. She knew that _she’d_ get to talk to GAIA, but hadn’t considered anyone else doing it. “I suppose, but I don’t think I want that widely known. She’s not actually a goddess, and she has more than just the Nora to worry about. The whole world is on her shoulders.”

He nodded. “A wise decision.” He pulled her into a hug and her arms went around his waist. It wasn’t until she found him again that she realized just how much she missed him.

He squeezed her and let her go. “Let’s go. I have more questions, but I need to take this leg off.” She made a face showing her concern and he shook his head, saying, “None of that, girl. I’m fine.”

“Alright,” she agreed, slowly walking ahead of him and monitoring his gait for any pain. With a smirk she added, “Follow.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! And if I'm the only person that wanted this, thank you for reading until the end. I want to say that HZD is literally my favorite work of fiction, and I don't think this is what should have happened, but it's what my girl DESERVES
> 
> Also, when I'm writing fic I think of dumb jokes that I want to share but don't belong in the tags so here you go:  
> 1\. My dad sucked so I’m a sucker for dads, and no, not the sexy kind  
> 2\. Aloy has massive John Mulaney-esque “Who would believe in that?” “MY DAD SO SHUT THE FUCK UP” energy


End file.
